


Love Potion

by Midsummer



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Denial, Feelings, Haechan just wants Mark to fall in love with him, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Jaemin is a med student, M/M, Warlocks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-07-09
Packaged: 2019-10-04 07:41:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17300564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Midsummer/pseuds/Midsummer
Summary: Jeno accidentally drinks the love potion Haechan ordered.





	1. Week 1

**Author's Note:**

> I posted this on my wattpad account (@TopMagician) too so please follow me :)
> 
> Thank you so so much StanStaryKids for proofreading this, you're a saint :')
> 
> Happy reading!

Being a warlock in one of Korea’s most well-known universities, National Culture Technology University or NCT U as the students call it, was a hassle in Jaemin’s opinion. Aside from the headaches from his gruesome assignments as a medical student and headaches from brewing potions per his clients’ requests—“it’s a business,” Ten had grinned when he suggested the potion service when he knew the warlock community in NCT U was quite large. “We’re both broke and hungry university students who happen to be _warlocks_ … what else could we do?”—he _also_ frequently gets a free front seat ticket to watch the greatest drama of all time unfold starring the best students in Korea in the uncanny timings ever. Like now for example.

“I don’t want to go to a school filled with snotty little kids as my first date with the person I have been crushing on since first semester!” Haechan screams as soon as he enters Jaemin and Ten’s apartment room slash laboratory, crashing Jaemin’s hope of ever finishing that one sleeping draught Hwall ordered last week.

“Sorry Hwall, guess you’ll have to endure Sanha’s annoyance for a day longer,” Jaemin mutters apologetically under his breath and he prays for his friend’s sanity because Sanha, Hwall’s loud roommate, was… Sanha for a reason.

Jaemin rolls on his and Ten’s joint bed and diverts his attention towards his best friend who is now grumbling nonsense. He gets up from his study table turned mini lab and walks towards his despicable friend, patting the sad lump of a human body in sympathy. “Is it even a date if it’s an assignment?” he asks.

“It is!” Haechan springs back to life quickly just to glare at him and Jaemin had to stop himself from pinching the bridge of his nose. He’s getting tired of this dramatic Haechan and tired of everything in general but his best friend needs him right now and being the nice best friend he is, he tries to comfort him.

“Just cause the two of you will be alone together?”

“Duh, Mr. Obvious! Wouldn’t you feel that way too if—”

Jaemin gives his best friend a sharp silencing glare and Haechan closes his mouth and scowls in retaliation, looking away from him and getting all pouty. _So childish…_ Jaemin chides inside his head as he lets out another sigh. He has an idea on how to make this Haechan drama end. Aside from being exhausted of hearing this never-ending rant (he loves Haechan so much don’t get him wrong, it just gets on his nerves sometimes), it is still Monday and around 10 at night.

“Don’t you have any idea how to make him like me Jae?” Haechan sniffles with that annoying pout on his face. _And oh my Lord are those tears in his eyes!?_  “I was the one who dyed your hair pink!”

 _Well Haechan likes to keep scores huh,_ Jaemin laments internally. He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. The idea he has might not be the best but… for his best friend’s sake.

“How about…” Haechan looks up at him with that really crestfallen face of his. _Oh the things I do for my best friend_ Jaemin laments. “I make a love potion for Mark? A love potion that will get him to really fall in love with you?”

Haechan furrows his eyebrows in confusion. “Isn’t that what love potions are supposed to do?” he asks back, confused. Jaemin sometimes forgets that Haechan doesn’t really attend or have any formal education of his warlock heritage unlike him.

“Most love potions are just driven by infatuation. It doesn’t make the person who drinks it fall in love per se, it makes them infatuated. Makes them crazy about the person who gave the love potion so it isn’t really love. It isn’t what ‘love’ is portrayed to be. But there is one potion that makes someone fall in love completely with the person who gives the love potion, it makes them not _crazily_ in love with them but _genuinely_ in love with them. I’m not making sense, am I?” Haechan gives him that awkward smile he makes whenever he’s confused and doesn’t really catch an explanation someone is giving.

Jaemin is crap at explaining but then when he explains things the ‘science way’, his best friend will be even more lost. He has to take another approach on how to explain this and it didn’t take long for his ever so brilliant mind to provide him an explanation which his best friend could understand. “It will make him fall in love slowly then all at once,” using a reference from the book Haechan really like turns on the light bulbs on his best friend’s head. Look at them clicking together like the dorks they are.

“Then I want that potion!” Haechan grins and Jaemin was momentarily blinded by the radiating smile of his best friend. “I love you, Jaemin!” Haechan pulls him into an impossibly tight hug. “I want that potion, okay?! I’ll be going now, bye Jaemin, bye Ten!”

And Haechan was out of the room in a blink of an eye. Ten blinks at him from the door, “What did I miss?”

Jaemin waves him off, it isn't something the dance major should worry about.

 

-

 

Sunny blinks at the list of flowers she got from her junior, looking up at Jaemin with that adorable confused face of hers that no one can resist. Jaemin had to quench the urge to scream at how adorable she is right then and there because they’re in the library and Jaemin doesn’t want to get Sunny in trouble.

_The aegyo queen indeed._

“This is a lot of flowers,” Sunny states and her eyes scans over the list once more. There were purple lilac, clove, heliotrope, mallow and a lot more. From what she observed all of the flowers had the same meaning to one thing: love.

Jaemin shifts his foot from side to side, smiling sheepishly at his senior-then who now works as the librarian in his university. He had ran all the way to the library located right at the heart of the campus from the science and medicine buildings located on the far edge of the campus at seven in the morning so he could deliver his list of raw materials to the senior. He’s embarrassed for showing up a bit far too early in the morning but he really wants the drama his best friend is involve in to end as soon as possible.

“Yeah… That’s for the love potion I’m planning to make so I really need those flowers. Can you please get that list to T-Tiffany-sunbaenim?” Jaemin had always harbored a crush on his mentor and saying her name had always been a struggle for him. Excuse his fanboying self but really though, his mentor is someone amazing and out of this world. She’s now his and Ten’s supplier for raw ingredients and do you know what’s the plus? She gives them for _free._ How amazing is that? His mentor is truly the greatest. So all they have to do is make a list of ingredients and to get the list to his mentor, it has to go through Sunny who is also his mentor’s longtime friend.

To Jaemin’s luck, Sunny didn’t ask any further question and just smiled at him with a nod. “Sure! I’ll give this to her and then you’ll pick up the supplies next week like usual?”

Jaemin can’t help but grin. “That’d be great.”

 

-

 

**_From: Snail_ **

_I’m coming in_

“Not today, Satan!” Jaemin is glad he was able to intercept Seungmin’s entry to his apartment room by bashing his whole body weight on to the door just as the door opened. Seungmin is struggling to keep the door open from the other side and Jaemin is thankful for his impromptu hangouts with Jeno at the gym.

Even with the body disadvantage, Jaemin could see the tell-tale sign of Seungmin’s impish grin from the slight opening. Neither of them are going to give up—“persistent bitches,” Choi Jongho once said. Bae Jinyoung, a fellow warlock who likes to add fuel to the fire, shook his head at his words, “more like just bitchy.” And before the name calling could get worse, Jaemin flipped them the finger to which the two cackled like the true warlocks they were.

Unfortunately, Jaemin hates violence and is a peacemaker who wants to settle things without bruising something or someone. “You know Ten is going to behead me if our door has to get repaired for the second time this week, right?” Sanha says he still has nightmares about the short senior fuming in rage when their door had to get repaired because _some_ idiot (namely Sanha) drank the strength amplifying potion and decided to test it by slamming oneself to the door.

Seungmin snorts out a laughter and Jaemin scrunches his nose at the awful sound his friend made, internally wondering why the most handsome guy from their year—Hwang Hyunjin—ended up as this devil’s unattractive boyfriend. How the world works baffles Jaemin sometimes.

“Well... a little birdie told me you are going to make the eternal love potion for our dear Haechannie which surprises me because Mark,” Seungmin slams his body against the door and Jaemin has to hold his ground when he croaks, “hyung,” Seungmin was not having any of it, unfortunately and continued his rant, “is already fucking smitten for him. So I don’t understand why,” Jaemin prays to every deity out there for his door’s safety. “You, Na Jaemin one of the university’s best warlock, decided to make that damn potion!” Seungmin slams his shoulder against the door at every word he enunciate as if to make a point. “Humor me, bitch,” he hisses at last.

Whoever said that Seugmin was an innocent angel was a fucking liar.

“Wow, you kiss your mother with that mouth Kim Seungmin?” Jaemin says as a way to lighten up the mood but it was a terrible move on his part because it only motivated Seungmin to bash the door even harder. Jaemin regrets declining Jeno’s offer of weight training.

Fortunately someone heard Jaemin’s prayer of help because a smooth velvety voice graced his ears just as Seungmin was getting a serious bruising with his bashing, “babe let go of the door.”

Jaemin’s saving grace comes in a form of a terribly handsome young man who officially won the unofficial ranking of the most handsome 00 liner of the university. Hwang Hyunjin, the devil’s leash.

Jaemin hears Seungmin huff agitatedly, slamming once more unto the door for the last time and slowly, the pressure from the other side of the door was gone. Jaemin relaxes, just for a second.

Jaemin timidly glances at the slight opening and pursed his lips when he saw Seungmin has a disappointed look on his face. “Come on, Seungmin,” Jaemin pouts and tries his best to show his kicked puppy face knowing it was his best card against anyone in the university. “I swear on my grandma’s grave that it was out of hand when it happened… I didn’t mean it that way, I promise.”

Jaemin understands the disappointment Seungmin is showing. Seungmin’s parents are the higher echelon of the warlock society in their area and Seungmin, being the son of an outstanding couple of the area they are living in, had taken the warlocks in the university under his wing (even without the said warlocks knowing). Not only was the eternal love potion lethal for someone, it was also irreversible--at least that's what the legend says.  However, Jaemin has yet to find the reverse potion for it. It is also difficult to make and could turn into something dangerous if there was anything in the potion that was done wrong.

Jaemin tried his best to not look away as the two of them started a staredown.

Seungmin rolled his eyes in the end. “Get changed then we’ll talk,” Jaemin internally cheers when Seungmin gave in.

“Will do, sir!” Jaemin mocks a salute and scrambles from the door to his bedroom not bothering to close the door because Seungmin and Hyunjin were regular visitors and he didn’t mind them seeing the sob state of his apartment. He went to his room, it was messy—as how any university students’ room would look like and adding to the fact that his room was more like a lab than a bedroom with all the potion books and pots covering every inch of it, well… you could picture just how shipwrecked it looks like. Despite being a med student who also runs a small potion business, Jaemin had the necessary “fashion sense”—as how Haechan calls it and Jaemin rolls his eyes whenever he recalls that because seriously does Haechan thinks he’s some sort of fashion God or something—as everyone had in their year. He took off the white lab coat he was wearing since morning, putting on a dark blue sweater over his black t-shirt and fixed his frazzled hair just as he was about to go out of the door.

Jaemin shut the door of his apartment, turning to Seungmin who had his I-am-not-paid-enough-to-deal-with-your-bullshit face all along. “So… how’s your law studies treating you?” he asked, trying to lighten up the atmosphere by starting a mundane topic.

“Terrific,” Seungmin replies blandly and Jaemin internally winces. Well there goes his peace treaty.

Hyunjin chuckles. “He’s been complaining actually and it's just the start of a new semester,” He gives Jaemin a warm smile, patting his boyfriend’s cheek softly. His eyes were soft and full fondness. _Domestic_ , Jaemin smiles back as he internally cringes.

“Well how about you? You holding up good?”

“I’m fine,” Hyunjin smiles. “Lots of drawings to do but its great…”

“Can we stop the frivolous talk now?” Seungmin snaps as he walks, Jaemin and Hyunjin shared a knowing glance and chuckles lowly at Seungmin’s adorable yet aggravated behavior. “Jaemin! You still owe me a story of how you got yourself into that situation!”

“How did you even know about it so fast?” Jaemin asks. “Like it just happened yesterday…”

Seungmin turns around to give him an incredulous look as if he couldn’t believe what Jaemin had just said. Jaemin contemplates and decides to take back his words, “Like I get it that Haechan is terrible at telling secrets but-”

“And so is Jisung,” Seungmin adds as he press the two buttons to call an elevator, he was sly and mischievous that way.

Jaemin had to make a face, he knows three Jisungs and all of them are fellow warlocks. “Which one?”

“Han who else,” Jaemin wince.

“Does… everyone know about it?”

“You should be glad that I stopped them from spilling to anyone else. Only Haechan, Jisung, Hwall and Sanha know about it as of now.”

Jaemin sighs, ripping out a part of the chapped and dry skin of his lip as he braces himself to explain. “Look... I didn’t mean to say it I swear. I was really really tired and I had just finished my required practical lab for Tropical Medicine _and_ the report I had to make about it. I know it was irresponsible of me to just blurt it out when I was exhausted but really… I’m sorry.”

The elevator rings, the metallic doors slide open and the three of them silently walks inside.

“What’s done is done,” Seungmin speaks up just as the door closed. He turns towards Jaemin with an unreadable look on his face and a miniscule smile. “We can’t reverse it as much as we want to because I know how awful our Haechan could be when he’s really down in the pits,” Jaemin nods his head thoroughly understanding what Seungmin meant. They were there when Haechan struggled through his depression at the start of the semester. “Just promise me one thing, yeah? That hopefully nothing hits the fan.”

Jaemin cheekily grins at the law major student. “You just jinxed it Seungminnie,” he says sweetly. Seungmin rolls his eyes but his smile widens, “well I know you’ll handle it just fine.”

The elevator rings, signaling the arrival to their designated floor. Hyunjin clears his throat and smiles. “Anyone up for dinner?”

 

-

 

From the fuzzy screen Jaemin could make out Ten frowning disapprovingly at him. His voice sounded so disoriented when he speaks and Jaemin had to switch the video call to a normal voice call because signal sucks ass when you’re not around campus. _Especially when you’re low in credits,_ Jaemin grumbles internally.

  _“Are you sure you can do it?”_

Jaemin rolls his eyes, how many ‘yes’ does he have to say to assure his senior that he could make this potentially lethal potion?

“Yes hyung! How many times do I have to tell you that?” His scowl deepens when he didn’t close his car door tight enough. He opens the door once more as he continues to ramble to his roommate and senior. “I’ll be making that potion just so Haechan could kiss his single ass goodbye! Besides… don’t you pity him? He’s been crushing on Mark since the start of the first semester, I don’t want to hear another ramble of that for the next few weeks with all the lab stuff I have to do coming up! I will go bald!” He nods in approval when the door gave that satisfying sound of being closed tight.

He turns around to walk up the steps to Sunny’s apartment where he’ll be picking up the ingredients he had ordered two days ago. Whenever they have orders, they give it to Sunny when she’s at work in the library and would pick up their requested ingredients in her apartment, the senior had long trusted the two of her juniors with her apartment’s password knowing that the two wouldn’t do anything aside from picking their orders from her room.

Ten snickers and Jaemin is so close to strangling his senior through the telephone. _“If you’re so sure then I won’t hold you back but remember… it’s considered to be one of the hardest potion to make.”_

“I know, hyung,” Jaemin climbs up the stairs to the first floor, taking a right immediately on the set of stairs. He finds Sunny’s apartment room not long after—room number 18. “If it makes you feel better, Tiffany-sunbaenim messaged me how to make the potion and asked me to give her regular updates on the progress of the potion, pre, pra, and post making it.” He says as he punches the password he had long memorized.

 _“Woah, really? Tiffany-sunbaenim is the greatest,”_ Jaemin smiles at Ten’s words. “Yeah… she is…”

Jaemin enters the room, noticing immediately the brown boxes loitering the living room floor that have been labelled with _Ten and Jaemin._ He raises an eyebrow at the amount of boxes. “Oh hyung… did you order something?”

_“Yeah I did… a few ingredients for sleeping draughts, energy booster potions, night owl potions, and the usual ones. Why?”_

“No, it's just that there’s a lot of boxes…”

_“Ah… sorry about that. But anyways when you went to give your order to Sunny-sunbaenim you didn’t tell me! Did you know how surprised I was when Sunny-sunbaenim told me that you already gave the order list but none of them had what I wanted!?”_

Jaemin turns sheepish at his senior’s outburst. “Sorry hyung… I was so out of it. I just wanted to finish the Haechan drama that I forgot to give your order to Sunny-sunbaenim,” he gives a short laugh to which Ten only sighs at.

_“It's fine, kid… next time just remember to give my list to her okay?”_

“Yes, hyung. I’m sorry!” Jaemin apologize once more with that _aegyo_ voice he nurtured throughout the years. Jaemin could feel Ten rolling his eyes, _“yes yes as long as you don’t repeat it again. Oh and have you given the sleeping draught Hwall requested? He’s been bothering me about it.”_

Jaemin goes a bit silent. “About that…” He takes the only brown paper bag labelled with only his name on it.  He opens the bag and smiles, his mentor is truly kind.

“I haven’t really had the time to give it him,” Jaemin speaks up when his senior called his name. He place the paper bag down on the table and sighs dejectedly, he’s been so busy lately and without him noticing, he’s been neglecting his duties bit by bit in this little business of his and Ten’s.

 _“Ah… then let me do it, we’re in the same major. Besides, I know you’ve been busy lately. Where are they?”_ His senior, ever the thoughtful one out of the two of them.

“On my desk labelled Hwall,” Jaemin smiles. “Thank you, hyung.”

 _“You better be grateful,”_ Ten mocking a strict and harsh tone but Jaemin could sense the underlying fondness to his voice. His hyung is such a softie.

“Thank you hyung,” Jaemin smiles.

 _“Take care of yourself kiddo,”_ Ten says and Jaemin nods his head even though he knows his senior wouldn’t be able to see it. “I will, hyung. I’ll take care of the goods for now, okay?”

_“Yes, yes, bring them safely here ne? Good bye Jaemin.”_

“Yes hyung, bye!”

Ending the call, Jaemin puts his phone inside his pocket once more and glances at the paper bag on his lap and then at the carefully wrapped boxes surrounding him. “Time for work.”

 

-

 

Hwall shakes his head at him as soon as he sees his friend on the coffee table waiting for him. Jaemin looks frazzled. Even with his freshly dyed pink hair, he looks exhausted beyond words. Dark bags under his eyes, pale skin, sunken cheekbones, and chapped dry lips. Na Jaemin, a friend he knows quite well because of his social butterfly reputation and his small friendly warlock business with Ten. As a warlock, Hwall knows of him because of his brilliance in brewing potions and as the mentee of the famous warlock Tiffany Young.

“You look worse for the wear,” he says in lieu of a greeting as he takes the seat in front of Jaemin. As much as he is well known as a bright sunshine kid, Hwall knows of the side he rarely shows to people when the days become dark. Hwall’s glad he’s one of the people whose allowed to see this side of Jaemin.

Jaemin smiles as he looks up at him from the thick textbook he was seeing as a reference to the paper he was writing at the moment.

“I heard from Haechan you’re making that pretty lethal love potion,” Hwall starts.

“Ah…” Jaemin writes down the answer to the question he is doing. Fortunately, this assignment is the last one he has to do today. The deadline might be days away but Jaemin is skeptical on when he could do it if not today. “Well, I have to do it if I want to get Haechan and his sickening one-sided love story out of my hair,” he looks up from his paper briefly to give Hwall a smile.

Hwall frowns. “But you know how whipped Mark-hyung is for him,” he argues and Jaemin sighs.

He gives Hwall a half-hearted smile, “I know, we all know! But you know how Hyuckie is. When he doesn’t believe then he doesn’t believe it. And making this love potion could be a win-win situation for us to be honest.”

Hwall’s frown deepens at his friend’s words, doubtful of his friend’s word. “What do you mean?”

“The love potion will make Mark confess his love to Channie. If he confesses his undying love for Channie with maybe some words along the lines of ‘I've liked you since the start of first semester’ then that just means that he loved our Haechannie way before the love potion was given which means that he was in love with Haechan all along and that well giving the love potion just boosted his ego and confidence to confess” Jaemin explains long and hard. Hwall hums in understanding.

Jaemin laughs as he scribbles the last part of the equation he was solving then placed his pen down when he was done with it. Trust Hwall to reply so simply after a long ass explanation. 

Hwall glances at the paper, Jaemin’s sorry-looking assignment papers, immediately flinching and moving away when he saw that it was chemistry. He’s glad he’s majoring in dance and not something as lethal as med—which is what Jaemin is currently majoring in.

Jaemin chuckles and moves the papers and books on the table aside to make room for Hwall’s cup of coffee. “It’s not much biology to be honest but anyways…” Jaemin turns around to take one small bottle from his bag and places it in front of Hwall. “Here’s your order… one bottle of memorizing amplifier potion” he pushes the small bottle filled with yellow liquid towards Hwall. “Oh! And I’m sorry for giving you the sleeping draught late. I had a lot of stuff to do…” Jaemin smiles sheepishly.

“No worries! I got it from Ten-hyung already, thanks by the way.” Hwall smiles, placing money on the table and sliding them across the table towards Jaemin. “And here’s the payment... thanks for making them for me and as a bonus, here…” Hwall outstretches his arm towards Jaemin, an awfully familiar brew hits his nose and Jaemin sighs, taking the cup from the brown-haired lad.

Jaemin gives Hwall the teary puppy-eyed look he gives when he feels really touched by the kindness someone has done to him. Hwall rolls his eyes, he hates it when he gets too mushy and touchy-feely and Jaemin knows that but what is good about Jaemin is that he doesn’t tease Hwall about his kindness.

“Thank you so much, Hwall. You’re a savior!”

“Okay, stop it with those puppy eyes and pack your things, the others are waiting for you.”

Jaemin blinks in surprise. “The others…?”

“Yeah the others,” Hwall shrugs. “Felix, Sanha, Seungmin, Jinyoung, hell even Renjun and a few others of the 00 liners crew. They’re all worried about how you’re overworking yourself to the point of turning yourself into a Mark 2.0. So they decided that we do a movie slash TV show marathon night tonight.”

Jaemin snickers at his words. “Wow, you guys care so much about me…”

Hwall rolls his eyes. “If it makes you feel better I wasn’t the one who suggested it.”

“Aw we know deep down inside you, you care deeply about me Joonie,” Jaemin smiles teasingly. Hwall gives him the flat look he’s infamous for and Jaemin snickers but does as he was told, packs his things inside his bag. He zips his pencil case shut as he glances at Hwall, hesitant of his question. “Uhm... will Seungmin come?”

He was in good terms with Seungmin but what happened three days prior still scarred him a bit even if he doesn’t show it.

Hwall hides a smile behind his hand as he averts his eyes from Jaemin. “He’s tagging along with Hyunjin to help him with his project,” he replies and stands up from his seat.

And the topic was stopped from further advancing as Jaemin watches his friend. Hwall is truly a simple man.

“Anyways…I know you walked to this café so we’re going to take my car to Felix’s place,” Hwall said. “I’ll wait for you outside, you know my car right?”

Jaemin snorts. “How could I not? You’ve been rubbing to my face how you got it as a birthday gift from your mother since the start of the semester!”

Hwall gives him a knowing smirk but didn’t say anything more and left Jaemin to pack his stuff.

 

-

 

Jaemin gives the self-proclaimed most flexible boy of the 00 liner an unimpressed look when he opened the door and was about to close it back, right on the other’s face, when the other person jams the door by sliding his shoe-cladded foot in.

“I promise I won’t be too loud!”

“Try again you fucker the door had to be repaired because of your idiocy!”

“Please have mercy on my unfortunate soul, Jaemin!”

Jaemin gives the music major a look. He scans Sanha from the tip of his brown disheveled hair to the shiny brown sneakers that he likes to wear with a scowl. He’s trouble in a form of an eighteen-year-old boy who loves music. “And how exactly do I do that?”

“By letting me in!” Sanha begs. “Hwall kicked me out of the room and Jongho and Jinyoung wouldn’t let me in…”

Jaemin sighs. “Look, there’s this thing called music studio that you can rent?”

Sanha pouts. And Jaemin knows Sanha’s trying his hardest to exude all of his cuteness right now. It shows just how desperate he is. “I know, but it wouldn’t be the same. I get inspired much more easily when I’m with someone in the room like that guy from that show that we binge watched yesterday. What was his name again? Andy? Andre?”

Jaemin looks up at the ceiling, praying to all the deities out there to give him the strength he needs in dealing with his friends. “Alright,” he relents and opens the door wide for the other to enter. “Come on in and make yourself home.”

“Ah… what are you making?” Sanha clambers over the pile of potion books on the floor, making his way to the small pot on a portable stove that is letting out misty silver smoke scented like burning roses. The misty silver smoke isn’t because the pot is boiling but it’s just the potion’s characteristic, meaning that Jaemin brewed it correctly therefore his potion was successfully brewed.

Jaemin followed behind Sanha, pulling the other further from the pot just as Sanha looked like he was about to put his face in it. “Careful,” he says “it’s the eternal love potion I promised Haechan.”

“Wow…” Sanha’s widened eyes and gaping mouth with the look of wonderment on his face made Jaemin roll his eyes. It was adorable but Jaemin would never say it out loud, it will only boost the other’s ego a bit too much.

“It’s so clear…” Sanha mutters and Jaemin who was of earshot nodded.

“I know right, you could easily mistake it for water.”

“You went and made it right off the bat? I am amazed Jaemin-ssi.”

Now _that_ boosted Jaemin’s ego.

“Bow down before this amazing warlock,” he grins, raising his head and motions his arms in the air as if to motion Sanha to bow down to him. Sanha gives him the flattest look Jaemin ever saw him make and Jaemin laughs. He waves his hand as if to dismiss the compliment aside, “but anyways it was nothing I swear. I just did it right after I got my ingredients ready… it helped that the eternal love potion didn’t need a specific time to make  like the werewolf potion where you had to make it during the full moon, those types of things you know?”

Sanha nods, for once he wasn’t being such an airhead. “Well mostly its transformation potions or S class potions that requires a specific time to make them,” he then frowns. “Which confuses me cause you know how we grew up knowing that the eternal love potion is meant to be lethal? It isn’t even considered as an S class potion.”

Jaemin gives him an illuminating smile. “That’s where you’re mistaken,” he says as he swivels around to grab a crooked fading red book from a pile of books. “It’s a myth,” he opens it to a page which specifically explains about the reality of what the eternal love potion was and hands it to Sanha. “It was hard getting this book, I had to literally scorn our library’s tendon collection for this but anyways, yes it’s a myth. See what it says? _The eternal love potion does have a high level of difficulty when one brews it but it does not mean that it will be as lethal as people expects it to be. Surely, the potion does have an immense effect on those who drinks it and that it is exceptionally dangerous if it is brewed incorrectly but it does not mean that the potion itself is dangerous. It is mostly harmless._ ”

Sanha purses his lips, eyebrows furrowed. Many of their friends see Sanha as some jokester along with Haechan but down below the surface of that façade lies an intelligent mind. “Well, we can take it that the potion itself is harmless but don’t you think it’s what happens after it that matters?”

Jaemin tilts his head and repeated Sanha’s words inside his head. _Well, when you put it that way…_ “Are you suggesting that the influence of the potion is what makes it lethal?”

Sanha nods his head, maneuvering around Jaemin to place the book down on Jaemin’s quite messy island. “Well think about it… you love someone so much. And you’d do anything for this person like literally anything and nothing could stop you from it and it’s just…” he stops to take a deep breathe. “Don’t you think it’s suicidal of sort?”

Jaemin understands where Sanha is getting at. When you love someone so much, you literally would do anything for them and in this case _literally anything._ You’ll move mountains, divide oceans just for the person you love to be happy and it’s sort of frightening-- what Sanha was concluding.

_And what if that person doesn’t—_

“Where were you when I needed this extremely helpful cognizant talk?” Jaemin glares at Sanha instead of continuing that thought. It is dangerous. He doesn’t want to delve deeper into this and whatever meaning it lays ahead of him.

Sanha rubs the back of his neck with a sheepish smile on his face. He then shrugs his shoulders, waving his hand at Jaemin as if such gesture will just blow away the negative thoughts inside Jaemin’s head. “Let’s not think about the bad stuff, okay? I’m sure it's going to be okay…”

Jaemin takes a shaky breath, throwing a smile at him. “I hope so…”

 

-

 

“What on Earth is that?” Renjun points at the vial hanging on Jaemin’s belt. Jaemin waves him off. “It’s my emergency water just in case the lot of you gets too drunk off your asses and can’t get a ride home,” he lies smoothly with an easy smile plastered on his face.

Renjun laughs at that. Jaemin’s smile widens, Renjun knows he’s bullshitting but at least he wasn't the type to ask anything further about it. Jaemin leans forward and takes a red cup from the counter. _It's probably beer or some weird alcohol shit someone brewed,_ Jaemin scowls as he takes a look at the drink. He makes a face as he recall a distant memory, “I don’t need to make out with one of my friends ever again.”

Jaemin’s gaze lands on the other. Renjun with his styled chestnut hair, kohl-rimmed eyes, silver cross necklace, white wife beater, black ripped jeans, navy blue jacket, and white shoes looks otherworldly at the moment. Jaemin doesn’t understand why the person in front of him doesn’t even have a partner. Sure he’s a bit feisty at times but he’s got the looks and great personality. Jaemin would take a shot with him if it weren’t for the absence of attraction he has for the other male.

Renjun shakes his head, a fond smile on his face. “Who was it that had the unfortunate experience of making out with you again?”

Jaemin downed the alcohol—which wasn’t beer by the taste and smell of it now that he observed—from his cup in one sip, slamming it on the table right afterwards. “I don’t want to remember,” he mumbles. Renjun laughs at the face he made, “your fault for downing the whole cup in one go!”

“Fuck off,” Jaemin slurs. The alcohol kicks in and Jaemin groans at the headache he got. He felt the thundering bass of the music bang on his head, the music is suddenly too loud and it is making him dizzy. His vision narrowed and blurred around the edges, Renjun suddenly looks like he is so close and so far in the next second.

 _Fuck,_ Jaemin shakes his head and tried to get rid of the dizzying effect of alcohol but it only seems to worsen because everything momentarily looks like it spiraled.

_Who created this shit?_

“Where the fuck is Haechan?” he asks.

Renjun shrugs. “I don’t know, one second he is there the next he’s gone. Why?” he asks.

Jaemin motions at the vial hanging from his belt, “this water is for him, I just came here give it to him” Jaemin replies and gets off the counter.

Renjun nods his head, “no wonder you came in looking like that.” He cheekily points at Jaemin.

Jaemin scowls at him in return, “what’s wrong with my clothes?” he looks down to check himself out. He was still wearing the white shirt that had two buttons opened, showing off the graphic black shirt he wore underneath, maroon pants, and black sneakers he wore since morning. It looks fairly acceptable for parties, in his opinion.

Renjun hums, looking at Jaemin from head to toe. “I have no problems with it to be honest,” he grins.

Jaemin smirks at him, “you could’ve just told me how handsome I look.” Renjun throws the plastic red cup he had on his hand to his face. Jaemin laughs and ducks out of the way, his head hurt and all from moving but it was worth it. “Anways, catch you later Jun, got a hoe to catch.”

 Jaemin maneuvers his way into the main room of the house where the party is intense. He is only at this party to deliver Haechan’s potion because he couldn’t find the other _anywhere_ on campus. He heard from Sanha that Haechan was going to show up at this party and Jaemin with no further ado rushed to the party. He wouldn’t have been this drunk if he wasn’t distracted by the free alcohol drinks stacked in the kitchen. He hadn’t let loose in a long while and _this,_ he needed this. Although the tomorrow’s Jaemin would disagree because of the hangover he’ll have and the morning lessons he has to go to.

“Fuck 9 am lessons,” he scowls as he make his way through the crowd. He catches sight of the person he was looking for the whole day standing just on the side where the couch was being pushed to the side. “Haechan! Haechan!” He calls for his warlock friend who is flirting with Mark with a sleazy grin and clouded drunk eyes. _That’s a first,_ Jaemin raises an eyebrow at the pair as he walked up to them. _Haechan’s flirting never got reciprocated before._

“Bitch!” Haechan screeches as soon as Mark was out of earshot and he grabs Jaemin’s front shirt to pull him into a clumsy hug. “You didn’t tell me you’re going to the party!” he shouts.

“I am near, you fucker. Don’t scream,” Jaemin frowns at his friend as he tried to fix his scrunched up shirt. “I was looking for you all over campus actually to give you the _thing!_ ” As drunk as he was at the moment, he couldn’t possibly just expose to society what had been hidden for years.

Haechan grins, slinging an arm around Jaemin as he turns them around to face the other way, away from Mark’s vision of sight. “You’re being rude to Mark,” Jaemin points out and Haechan just laughs it off. _He’s drunk off his ass alright,_ Jaemin groans internally. “Just let me give you the potion and we’ll split ways!” he hisses, sobering up a little because the situation suddenly turned dire to him. He has a bad feeling about this.

“I need to get home before I get even more drunk!”

“Is there even a possibility of getting even more drunk?” Haechan whispers back with a giggle.

Jaemin rolls his eyes, “whatever, you uncultured swine. Just get that potion out of my hands, yeah?” he tries to encourage his friend to just take the damn potion so he could leave the building and think about his piled assignments.

“Aw what’s the rush?” Haechan pouts and when Jaemin was going to reply, he felt someone take the vial from his belt.

“Wait no!”

But it was too late, someone has downed the entire potion in one go and Jaemin stares in horror at Lee Jeno's face.


	2. Week 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Chenle speaks in riddles (kind of), Mark is infatuated, Haechan seeks guidance from an acquaintance, YangYang is a fluffy ball of mischief and softness and Jeno embarrasses himself in front of his close friend (not for the first time).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Credits to StanStrayKids for proofreading this, you are such a babe honey.

Jeno should’ve known better than to let Chenle hitch a ride on his car right after he dropped Renjun for his late afternoon class. He gives the boy in front of him a deadpan look, not bothering to sound or even look surprised at the sight of Jaemin’s white pants stained with what looks like orange juice neatly folded inside a plastic on the younger’s hands. “Really Chenle?”

“Hey! It was an accident!”

Jeno doesn’t even bother to roll his eyes at the other. “Get in,” he says instead, pushing a button to roll the windows upward while unlocking his car. Chenle opens the door, throwing his bag over to the backseat and eagerly climbing in the car, the plastic with a wet garment on it sits on his lap innocently.

Jeno shifts his gear, slowly pressing his foot on the accelerator as he drives away from the main entrance of NCT U’s music building. He throws a glance at the younger, suddenly aware of the absence of the other’s partner in crime, a certain chestnut-haired dancing prodigy. “Where’s Jisung?”

“I don’t know where he is,” Chenle pulls the strap of the seatbelt over him, buckling himself up. “We’re always together most of the time but it’s not like we stick to each other 24/7” Chenle rolls his eyes. He then frowns as if remembering something. “Wait, on the other hand, maybe he’s at the basketball court in the engineering department. He said something about Mark-hyung and the basketball team being there, renting the place to practice.”

Jeno raises an eyebrow, turning on the signal. “Doesn’t the music department have a court?”

“We don’t,” Chenle replies as Jeno changes lanes. Jeno nods, frowning just a second later when he sees the main street near NCT U crowded with vehicles. _Well_ , he reluctantly slows down the car, _people tend to leave the campus at this hour. Fair_.

“It’s not like everyone in the team will be present for practice hyung,” Chenle speaks up once more and Jeno doesn’t even bother to ask what he means by that knowing how much of a blabbermouth the Chinese is. “You know how Lucas-ge always wants to get a head’s up whenever someone goes there for practicing because he’s _such_ a sports fan,” he snorts. Jeno smiles, well that eccentric friend of theirs do work out a lot and since playing sports is considered working out, he had every person - who’re members of a sports team in their group of friends - to inform him whenever they want to have a practice session. “Hendrey-ge and Jungwoo-hyung drop by at times too.”

Jeno’s impressed. It’s normal to see their Jungwoo-hyung join other groups because he’s such a social butterfly, Hendery however is a shy person just like himself so it surprises him somewhat to hear one of their shy friends socializing with other people aside from their own group of friends.

“And you never?” Jeno honks loudly when someone forces their way into his lane just as he was about to move. We all want to go home too, he sighs.

Chenle reaches over to give Jeno a pat on his shoulder to express that he understands. Good thing Chenle’s apartment is not far away, Jeno tries to comfort himself with that fact.

“I do too sometimes, just not today lovely hyung of mine.”

The traffic light in front of them turns yellow and Jeno slows down his car, knowing they won’t make it. Besides, there’s a car in front of them. But it seems like the car behind them isn’t agreeing with his choice. He ignores the angry honks from behind, glancing at his junior through the rear-view mirror. “Was that supposed to be a compliment?”

The car in front of them speeds off just as the yellow artificial lights turns red. Chenle scowls at them as if the cars insulted him. “You could’ve just drove faster hyung!” he whines. “You’re seriously no fun…”

“I don’t want to get a love letter from the police on my second week of university Chenle-ya,” Jeno rolls his eyes. “Anyways…” he points at the white pants splattered with orange substance. “How on Earth did that happen?”

“I spilled orange juice on Jaemin-hyung when we ran on each other in the corridor near my class. Geez it was an accident hyung,” Chenle pouts.

_The audacity,_ Jeno quips internally. “You’re not even in the same building, how did you end up with him anyways?”

Chenle rolls his eyes, _this child_ Jeno thought. “It’s not like you’re his boyfriend hyung! Besides… he was the one in the music building okay? He was looking for Haechan-hyung.”

Jeno’s confused. Haechan’s a communication major, Jeno recalls. “Haechan’s not even majoring in music…”

“He assumed Haechan-hyung was with Mark-hyung,” Chenle sighs. “Jaemin-hyung looked like he had a problem with the two of them or something… I feel bad for him. Those two like each other but can’t seem to get on with the program and just confess to each other. I mean, pining on someone can only do you so much.”

Jeno blinks, “Jaemin and Haechan like each other?”

“No, you idiot!” Chenle’s affronted and Jeno doesn’t know why. The junior lets out an inaudible scream as if holding himself back from tearing Jeno apart, hands in the air to point out his obvious displeasure in Jeno’s conclusion, his eyes burning with some sort of powerful resolution. “Haechan-hyung and Mark-hyung like each other and Jaemin-hyung is the one playing cupid!”

Jeno’s certainly surprised by his outburst. “O-oh…”

“You’re so oblivious sometimes I don’t know why I try,” Chenle huffs, throwing himself back on his seat, arms crossed on his chest. “Hyung, the light’s green.”

Jeno scrambles for the accelerator. “S-So…” he starts, embarrassed of his own display of a very brilliant example of a bad driver for accelerating so fast as soon as he’s got the green. “Haechan and Mark-hyung like each other and Jaemin is trying to get them together?”

Chenle lets out a heavy sigh, Jeno finds himself guilty for making such a youthful teen turn into an old man because of his inability to observe his surroundings. “Yes hyung…”

“S-Sorry…” Jeno catches Chenle waving his hand from the corner of his eyes.

“Nothing to be sorry of. Although…  I’m sorry for whoever likes you because you’re _so_ oblivious like a damn rock or someone who lives in a cave. Or maybe it’s that,” Chenle’s grinning and it’s never a good sign for anyone who receives it. “Are you a caveman hyung living in a cave somewhere? Or is university and those extremely difficult assignments your metaphorical cave?”

Jeno’s cheeks burn. “S-Stop it Chenle!”

Chenle throws his head back and laughs. Jeno curses whoever taught his junior how to be sassy. Probably Haechan. That Gemini loves to get under people’s skin just for the heck of it. Oh, and that it ‘amuses’ him.

Chenle’s still giggling as he waves a hand. “You’re so fun to tease, hyung! You make it so easy!”

“You’re just like Haechan…” Jeno grumbles, dramatically sinking himself a bit on his seat. “And I thought you’re _my_ favorite. I take it back! You’re absolutely _not_ my favorite anymore!”

Jeno scowls when Chenle rolls his eyes. “Yah! You’re so mean to me!”

“Eyes on the road hyung.”

Jeno brakes just as a car slips into their lane and right in front of them, thankfully the car in front of them merely accelerates off. However, the car behind them honks long and loud because of the sudden stop but Jeno ignores it. Chenle chuckles, leaning against the window to roll it down and give the driver his middle finger. Jeno swerves out of the lane just in time to save his junior’s life, not bothering to turn on his signal. Seriously this child…

“Chenle please.”

“It’s not like they’ll get hurt from a little insult,” Chenle clicks his tongue and rolls the window back up. “My Academic Writing professor says it’s healthy for us to receive critism once in awhile.”

“We were in the wrong,” Jeno points out.

“Correction: _you_ were in the wrong,” Chenle throws the senior of his a dazzling smile when the other glances at him. “The guy’s too harsh on you for honking that loudly, he was annoying from the start anyway besides… I’ve always wanted to do that.”

Jeno wants to bash his head on the steering wheel. Why did his friends adopt Chenle to be part of their group again? Why can’t they take Seunghyun instead?  Or Dongchun? Or even Daehwi?

Chenle’s chuckle sounds more taunting than reassuring. “Anyways hyung… I think you’re too much of an oblivious rock just like Mark-hyung to notice anyone who likes you. Those fangirls of yours are a perfect example for this.”

Jeno lets out a huge exhale, “no, I notice them okay?”

“Fine then. Do you know anyone from your class who likes you then?” Chenle asks, challenging. Jeno steals a glance at the younger from the rear-view mirror only to find him coolly shining his nails on the breast of his shirt. “So, hyung, got an idea?”

Jeno’s silent answers it all.

He feels the grin more than sees it. “Thought so.”

“Whatever, is it even important?” Jeno huffs, he doesn’t get the point of this conversation anyways. So what if someone likes him? So what? It’s not like the world will end or anything that drastic. With that thought in mind, he signals to switch lanes so he can turn left just at the corner of the street. Chenle’s apartment is just a little bit further.

Chenle hums, Jeno hears a click and he knows the first year music major is fiddling with his things inside the compartment. “It’s not,” the younger admits finally just as Jeno turns to the left. Jeno watches from the corner of his eyes as Chenle takes out a black and white cap Jaemin gave him on his nineteenth birthday. “It’s not important, sure, it’s not like you’ll get asked about it on your afterlife or whatever but…” Chenle twirls the cap on his hand. “I guess it just doesn’t hurt to know.”

Jeno frowns. Chenle loves to talk in riddles sometimes, hiding his true intention somewhere behind his words or actions. The sight of the red bricked walls and gleaming windows greets Jeno’s sight, Chenle’s apartment looming over the car, casting a shadow against them as Jeno breaks into a stop. “What do you mean by that?”

The car slows, stopping right at the main entrance of the tall red-bricked apartment block. Chenle gives him a shit eating grin in reply. “We’ve arrived,” he announces and just like that the subject’s dropped and lost in time.

 

-

“Cheater!”

If Mark is in an anime show or manga he would’ve been sweatdropping at how childish Hendrey was as he tries to grab the basketball from Sanha.

Sanha swivels out of the way. “Come and try to get the ball from me donkey!” Sanha taunts, dribbling the ball with expertise as he runs off with it. Hendrey’s growl rips a laughter from the younger and the two starts to run their second lap round the courtyard.

Mark uses the towel hanging from his shoulders to wipe his forehead. He looks over at his team spread out haphazardly around the courtyard, resting as they talk to one another or laughing at Sanha and Hendrey, or just enjoying their own time as they drink from their water bottles. _They deserve it anyways,_ Mark smiles, _they tried so hard at practice today_.

He looks over the courtyard, hues of yellow fades slowly as the sun sets, turning the sky to a mesmerizing shade of burning ambers and glistening indigos. It’s getting late… they should end this practice soon.

“Yo Mark,” Mark catches the bottle, albeit clumsily, surprised. Yuta grins at him, putting his hand on his head and tilting his head a bit. His senior looks different with his shaggy brown colored hair, tanner skin and a stronger built from what Mark could see from his white muscle top fitting a little bit tightly to his body. He looks different but at the same time he looks the same as ever— just Yuta. “You missed me or something?” his grin widens, opening his arms and Mark runs into the older’s arms without a second thought, bottle dropped and forgotten.

“I missed you, hyung,” Mark says and buries himself into his senior’s warm embrace.

Yuta laughs, that loud and cheerful tone of laughter sounding so much like tinkling bells and running water. “I thought you hate physical contact,” he says when they slightly pull away from each other, although their arms are still around each other.

Mark huffs, this teasing is getting a bit too much sometimes. “You know I don’t actually hate it, people just take me by surprise most of the time and I—”

Yuta chuckles, pinches his nose as he does so. “I know, I know I’m just teasing you baby lion.”

Mark wants to whine because he can and this is just his hyung whom he had known very well but then Haechan came and Mark shuts himself down.

“Yuta-hyung!” Haechan all but flings himself to the unsuspecting senior of theirs, ultimately catching everyone’s attention.

“Didn’t know you’re part of the basketball team hyung,” Haechan teases as he beams at the older, so sunny, so bright, Mark wishes to bathe in the light he exudes just from doing such a simple action—smiling.

“That’s because he’s not,” Jungwoo pipes with a gentle smile, joining the small group that was created. “He’s in uni’s soccer team who tends to go and hoe around in other sports club for fun just like me,” he winks and Haechan giggles. It’s cute.

Yuta puts an arm around Haechan, not letting him out of his grasp.

It makes sense to Mark. Mark wouldn’t let go of Haechan either.

“ _Was_ in uni’s soccer team, I graduated last year Jungwoo-ah,” Yuta corrects. “I did stay in the team the longest though, you know, me being the charmer of the team” Yuta grins cheekily and wiggles his eyebrows in that funny way only he can. It only makes everyone laugh, Yuta has that kind of effect on everyone. Mark glances around the courtyard, not surprised how everyone is gathered around them.

Yuta turns to Haechan, his smile still on place. “How’s Ten, Haechan-ah?”

“Oh you know, still roommates with Jaemin,” Haechan rants.

Yuta snorts, eyes turning warm and soft like the reflecting light shining on calm waters. Mark realizes its fondness. “Speaking of Ten, has the dance crew leader changed?”

“Since last year hyung,” Haechan grins. “As much as Ten loves the crew, he really _really_ wants to graduate. The torch has been passed on to Wooyoung-hyung since last year.”

Yuta frowns, confused. “Who?”

“A friend of Jongho’s.”

Yuta chuckles awkwardly. “…who?”

Haechan rolls his eyes. “Never mind hyung, you wouldn’t know of us younger generation,” to which Yuta laughs awkwardly at, while the rest, who are  listening to the conversation the whole time, laughs heartily and Mark watches as Haechan’s lips curves upwards into a smile, illuminated beautifully by the setting sun.

 

-

 

Jeno was just going through his notes as he tries to do the two-person project for his Engineering Physics course, exchanging memes with Haechan through the group chat while watching dance groups cover songs that he liked when suddenly the wifi stopped working.

“Huh?” He refreshes the page. Trying to see if the video will reload once more but then the screen in front of him straight up informs Jeno that the page he was looking for wasn’t available and that he should check the Wi-Fi he is using.

He scowls at the white screen. He knew it wasn’t a good idea to come to YangYang’s place. Just because they could have the house to themselves without other five people in it doesn’t mean that it’s going to be a perfect place to study in— to which YangYang decided to ditch after spending a full five minutes reading.

He nudges YangYang, who is laying down on the carpeted floor with his arms and legs spread everywhere, by his rib with his foot. “YangYang your Wi-Fi’s not working,” he whines since YangYang’s one of the masters of the house he’s currently in right now. “This is your house, please go and check it out. I really want to see how this dance crew from New York interpret Secret Love Song.”

YangYang lifts his body up from the floor, looking round the spacious living room as if searching for someone. “Did you see Hendrey anywhere?”

“He went out a few minutes ago for a ‘date’,” Jeno uses his fingers at the word date to emphasize the ambiguity of the word then he makes a face. “It’s not even the weekend yet.”

“Handsome people can do whatever they want,” YangYang sympathizes with a pat on Jeno’s back. “Anyways, the Wi-Fi’s been like this since last week. Going on and off and all that like a hormonal teenager, Hendrey’s been the one fixing it every time it goes like this so Jeno- _hyung_ ,” he grins like the little insufferable shit he is. Jeno knows well the formality of being called hyung by YangYang was just a teasing point. YangYang wants to get under his skin, Jeno knows it, and it’s not even because of a personal vendetta or anything it’s just because he can and feels like it. “Fucking Haechan 2.0,” Renjun would’ve muttered.

“I’m sorry but you can’t watch it for now.”

_Oh so you wanna play like that huh._

Jeno gives him a deadpan face. “Aren’t you supposed to email that report of Manufacturing Technology Labotory I to Professor Hwang, YangYang? I’m sure the deadline’s set to be Tuesday which is today by the way, at around 10PM?”

Realization dawns on the younger. His face pales, eyes widen, mouth agape and Jeno would’ve laughed his ass off if it weren’t for the serious facade he’s trying to maintain to prove his point. And that…sets off YangYang into panic mode, Jeno relishes silently at the panic he caused.

“No! No! No! No!” YangYang is running to one of the two bedrooms of the house. A bedroom he shares with Xiaojun and Jeno watches from his seat on the carpeted floor as he makes a mess on his own table. “I don’t want to see Professor Hwang again next year! Why didn’t you say so, like, before this happened!? You triggered me intentionally, right!?”

Jeno shrugs and YangYang runs his mouth, cursing Jeno in his mother tongue. Jeno scowls at him when he hears something close to ‘motherfucker’ in Chinese. Jeno doesn’t really curse as much as his friends do but that swear word always gets him, rubbing him in the wrong way. “Hey! I’m right here!”

YangYang only continues his rant of curses, scorching his table in search of something as he does so, in German.

Well, that doesn’t really help.

“How did you guys even manage to rent a house near campus? How do you guys pay for the Wi-Fi?” Jeno asks out loud just because he feels like being annoying. Haechan’s right, being annoying is fun but Jeno would never admit it to the Gemini’s face.

“We got the place from Winwin-ge’s father’s connection, okay? Xiaojun-ge wanted a Chinese roommate—” “that’s kind of racist,” “— _shut up_ he just misses home, okay? Hendrey-ge is an exchange student from China who wanted to stay in Korea because he likes it; Kun-ge wants to live near the campus because he’s taking his master’s degree there right now; I’m tight on my money; and Lucas-ge was just… _there_.” YangYang groans loudly, Jeno’s sure he could hear the groan from the front store—if he was there right now.

Realizing YangYang haven’t answered his last question he frowns. “What about paying the rent and stuff? Doesn’t it like cost much higher living in a house?”

“Not if you’ve got friends living in it who pays for it too,” YangYang sighs. He pads on the wooden floors to sit right across Jeno, unsuccessful at his treasure hunt. “Hendrey’s guide on how to fix the Wi-Fi’s nowhere to be found. Okay, wise one,” he gives Jeno a knowing look. “Please call whoever it is you know who can fix the Wi-Fi.”

Jeno raises an eyebrow, playing dumb. “You really think I know someone who can fix it?”

YangYang’s not giving up, putting a show of being a victim was his specialty, with fake tears, hurt expression and all—the complete package. “I can’t believe you hyung, after everything we’ve been through.”

_He should’ve just went and became an actor._

However, Jeno’s not one to be fazed so quickly by the act his friend is putting on. “I don’t think we went through that much in the first place YangYang,” he smiles, eyes closed to form crescents, though his smile looks disturbingly lopsided, having a sinister blade to it. “I’ve always been the only one doing all of our two-man projects _afterall._ ”

Jeno catches YangYang’s eyes glancing at the clock hung on the wall in front of them. It’s nearing 9:25, oh how Jeno’s going to love this so much.

“I didn’t want to do this but please…” YangYang literally gets on his knees, hands clasped as he gives Jeno a very sad _sad_ look on his face. “I’ll do _anything_ hyung just _please_ , fix the Wi-Fi so I can send that report in _please._ ”

Jeno’s eyes gleams in victory. “ _Anything_ anything?”

“Yes, _please hyung—_ ”

Jeno grabs YangYang’s hand, shaking it with a smile on his face. “Deal.”

He goes to chat Jaemin on his phone, asking if he is still awake (to which he knows the other is) and if he’s not too bothered to come to YangYang’s place to fix the moody Wi-Fi. Jaemin agrees in a heartbeat not before sending laughing stickers and memes when Jeno recounted to him how YangYang begged him to fix his Wi-Fi.

And when Jaemin finally arrives at the doorstep, YangYang seemed so surprised to see him. “All this time it’s you!?”

Jaemin looks offended. “You bruise me, just because I’m a med student doesn’t mean I can’t fix Wi-Fis.”

“Alright, down tiger,” Ten pushes YangYang away from Jaemin because he’s the eldest and as much as he loves dramas, especially when one’s unravelling before his eyes, he knows how deadly deadlines are for university students. He turns to Jaemin, jutting his chin towards the staircase, “Jaemin, go and fix the Wi-Fi.”

Jaemin salutes and goes to the second floor. He had been over for a few times already to know his way around the house.

YangYang glares at Jeno to which Jeno merely grins at.

Ten walks over to sit in front of Jeno on the carpeted floor, sweeping his eyes over the books and papers scattered around. “Looks like you guys went through a lot,” he states.

“Understatement of the century,” YangYang deadpans, seated neatly on the carpeted floor with them, laptop on his lap and typing away, probably editing his report. “Trust me, you wouldn’t want to be a Mechanical Engineering student like ever,” he says without looking up from his laptop or stopping his typing session.

Ten’s lips curve into a beatific smile, he looks handsome even with those tired eyes and bare face. He stretches his legs forwards, his sock-clad feet barely touching Jeno’s folded legs. The Thai student has short legs but Jeno would never tease the older about it, afraid of whatever violence his hyung is hiding underneath his sleeves.

“I know how it feels like to be swamped with a lot of work. Being in different majors doesn’t mean that we all don’t experience some of the stuff you guys do, you know,” he puts his hands behind him, leaning his body back, eyes fixed on the open Manufacturing Technology book in front of him. “We’re taking different majors but, at the end of the day, we’re all still the same—college students” his eyes shifted to YangYang’s as he smiles once more, this one kinder and understanding.

Jeno nods, soaking up what he had just learnt from his senior, eyes fixed on his senior and his mind wondering if he’ll ever be as wise as him one day.

“I’m sorry,” YangYang blurts out suddenly. His cheeks flush red when he caught Jeno and Ten’s attention. “I didn’t mean to underestimate your major or anything…” his voice small, hesitant and squeaky.

Ten’s wide eyes softens, his smile having a more sincere curve to it. “It’s alright, Xiao Yang,” he reaches over and ruffles the younger’s hair. YangYang preens under the touch and the nickname too - maybe - but of course he’ll never admit it to anyone.

“Hyung, you drove Jaemin here?”

Ten turns to face Jeno, his hand never leaving YangYang’s hair however. “Yeah,” jingling his car keys on his other hand as he raises his eyebrows. “How am I supposed to let someone who doesn’t have a car and a driving license get here at like 9:30 15 minutes away from campus?”

_He could’ve used the bus,_ Jeno’s brain provides like the smartass it is but Jeno doesn’t say it because everyone knows how protective Ten could be when Jaemin’s concerned.

“I finished! Your Wi-Fi will never be gone ever again thanks to the one and only Na Jaemin!” Jaemin pops into the living room, skidding on the wooden floor with his plain black socks as if he’s an ice skater and laughs. He bows down to them, receiving different reactions from three different people. Ten rolls his eyes, YangYang cheers, while Jeno smiles.

Jaemin catches Jeno’s eyes and smiles, the action was too quick for Jeno to ponder on the hesitant brim to his smile.

“Come on, Ten-hyung!” He pulls Ten by the arm, trying to get the older to stand up. Ten, obviously not willing to get up, slouches his body. Jaemin continues to whine, “I’ve got to get back to finish my assignment!”

Jeno gets up, being the good host to see their guests head out since YangYang’s too distracted to do so. “Don’t sleep too late Jay,” he advices the youngest of his guests.

Jaemin somehow manages to trip himself on empty air and Jeno catches his arm. Ten snickers on the side.

Jeno’s nickname for Jaemin was a bit unique, no not Jae but _Jay_ with a ‘y’ at the end and not an ‘e’ like how people usually spell it when they try to call Jaemin’s name using the short version. Since Nana has been a nickname for those who are already close—and there are lots of people who’re close to Jaemin mind you—Jeno found it as his individual mission to find a nickname for Jaemin that only he can say. That was how Jay was created although, in Renjun’s words, it was “uncreative”. But Jaemin liked it and that was enough reason for Jeno to keep on using it.

“Careful,” Jeno smiles gently to the younger to which the latter mutely nods at.

Jeno keeps the door open as he waves at Jaemin and Ten. YangYang runs up to the front door just as Ten turned on the engine of his old Toyota car. “Thank you! Have a safe trip home!” YangYang shouts.

Ten and Jaemin waves at them and Jeno glimpses Jaemin smiling at him. He returns the smile and waves. ‘Sleep well Jay,’ Jeno mouths just as the car drives away.

 

-

 

Being a Gemini doesn’t mean he gets so emotional. Haechan gazes at the ring, his last arrow has punctured a perfect hole right in the middle of the bull’s eye just around 70 meters away from him. He breathes calmly through his nose, glancing at the bow on his hands. It just means he knows emotions better than the other zodiacs and can assess situations based on them.

_And what’s wrong with being a Gemini?_ Haechan’s chest warms at the thought, pride washing over him in waves as he gets patted on the back by his friends.

“That was a very great shot, oppa!” Hyeyeon smiles when he walks to where the seats were located, exchanging position with Eunbin who was waiting for her turn. He flashes her a smile, counting his arrows again just in case he missed one and sets his bow to lean on the bench Hyeyeon is sitting on. Unclasping his quiver from his belt and placing it upright on the foot of the bench.

The whistle’s blown, the archers got ready as they aim and shoot their arrows to the sky.

Hyeyeon scoots over the bench to give him space to sit, placing her baby pink bag on her lap. She gives him a water bottle from the cooler someone brought, he thanks her as he accepts the offered water bottle. He drinks, swallowing the water hungrily.

“I rarely see you here oppa,” Hyeyeon says.

Haechan smiles apologetically, capping his water bottle and setting it down on his thigh. “I’m sorry Hyeyeon, I’m more focused on choir and choir’s been busy as of late,” he rubs his neck, sheepish.

_And there’s that thing with Mark-hyung… and the potion._

They stayed silent for minutes, just watching the archers shooting arrows. Haechan feels an aggravating ache gnawing on his insides like a little worm monster when Eunbin goes to draw her fifth arrow.

Haechan steals a glance at the brunette beside him, mixed feelings churning up on his chest. The two of them might not be close friends, she’s not even a warlock or a witch so he doesn’t really know her. She’s just a colleague, a former teammate of his in the archery club just before she left due to health issues. She might’ve left the team but that didn’t mean she won’t be around the archery field whenever she has free time. She would sit down on the benches and just watch them all practice, cheering for them from time to time, and helping around with a beaming smile on her face.

Haechan doesn’t know what health issue she is going through, where or what is hurting her because she doesn’t tell anyone except for the coach and leader but Haechan understands and respects her need for privacy.

She might not look like she’s hurt whenever she comes but that doesn’t mean she isn’t. And who was he to burden her with his own problem?

“You can say it oppa,” Hyeyeon smiles, turning to him as her long brown hair cascades on her back when she tilts her head back a little, smile still in place and eyes twinkling with something akin to understanding.

But Haechan hates talking.

Especially when he knows he’s in the wrong.

Haechan glimpses a glance at Hyeyeon, she was still twinkling in patience and she looks so damn nice it actually encourages him to open up. Even if it’s just a little bit.

“Say… you like someone,” Haechan swallows, trying to relax his shoulders as he moves his body backwards. The sun’s still there however, hidden behind grey clouds. “Then you have a friend who knows how to get that someone to like you back but in like a backhanded way. You know it’s wrong, you’re just being a scaredy cat to tell that person how you feel about them,” he lifts his head up to look at the sky to watch a flock of birds fly by—mainly to avoid Hyeyeon’s gaze—wondering what kind of birds they are, where they’re heading off to and why.

“What would you do, Hyeyeon?”

Hyeyeon hums, her obsidian eyes catching his brown ones, a knowing smile placed on her lips. “I think you already know the answer to that oppa…”

Haechan huffs a smile as the two of them burst into giggles of laughter, laughing for no reason.

And the whistle blows, ringing loudly throughout the field.

 

-

 

YangYang had _one_ job.

One easy job.

The easiest, simplest job in the world.

“Wake me up at 7, alright? It’s 30 minutes from now,” Jeno told him, even showing the younger his phone that will set off in about 29 minutes and 32 seconds from then. YangYang had nodded, face contorts into a face of seriousness that Jeno had never seen him use.

Jeno just wanted to get a short shut eye after his exhausting laboratory practicum and making said practicum's report. He had crashed on YangYang's place (why does he even think that crashing at the younger's place was a good idea?) to get the shut eye but then the little spawn of the devil decided not to wake him up, even turning the timer in Jeno's phone off. When Jeno woke up in a rush he found the younger was fucking relaxing in his bathtub like an asshole extraordinaire he truly is, sipping on his cheap beer an grinning like Cheshire.

Jeno should’ve known better than to trust that sly fox.

YangYang purposely made him late for his very important dance practice this week just to get back to what Jeno did two _days_ ago.

Jeno does begrudgingly applaud the younger for getting his revenge so soon however.

Jeno should’ve known better than to stay close to YangYang for the whole week because the younger is one vengeful person underneath all those childish act he puts as a front.

Jeno hurries out of the bus, fastening his pace when the familiar brown building of the studio, which was just 20 minutes away from YangYang’s house, comes into his view and Jeno was just almost there. Like _almost almost_ there when a hand grabs his arm out of nowhere.

Jeno struggles for a minute, trying to shrug off the hand that is holding his arm because he truly doesn’t appreciate his captor’s effort  of stealing his precious time to talk about something most probably unimportant one bit when he could use it for practicing that one damn move he keeps on getting wrong in his own choreography.

_I’m going to bring you hell when I get back, YangYang._

“Look, I’m late for something important can we just please—”

“Jeno I need to talk to you.”

 Jeno freezes, turning his attention away from the bright lights of the studio to the pink-haired male who is standing just right beside him. He furrowed his brows together, confused as to _why_ the med student is here. Jaemin certainly loves to make impromptu visits in the dance crew’s gatherings and practices but he didn’t need to wait outside for permission, he usually never even _needs_ it ever since Ten let him in that one fine day back in their first year.

Jeno turns to him, letting his body catch up with his thoughts. That just mean that Jaemin have something important to say and that thought individually got him worried in the next second. “Is everything okay, Jay?”

Jaemin sighs, lifting his hand from Jeno’s arm to run it across his pink strands. He’s frustrated of something, Jeno frowns, but Jeno doesn’t want to press the other into talking. He stays silent, watching Jaemin with patience.

Jaemin sighs, that long dragging one he does when he doesn’t know how to explain whatever was going on. “Jeno— I—” he presses his lips together, his brown eyes going back up to catch Jeno’s own.

Jeno tries hard to stay still and patiently wait. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that difficult considering the death threat hanging about his head if he ever make it out of this conversation—courtesy of his one and only lovely Thai senior.

“Look, do you remember the party last week?”

Images flash before his eyes. Bottles upon bottles lined up on corners of every rooms, screaming free for all, YangYang laughing his ass off as he hands Jeno _another_ solo red cup of weird neon drink, blinding colorful lights flashing throughout an extremely crowded room, two people looking vaguely similar to Hyunjin and Seungmin dry humping each other just on his left side, music blasting off walls, his thoughts somewhere along the lines of _Doyoung-hyung would kill me if he saw this_ every time he drinks something off of a red cup.

Jeno’s face reddens, his hand finding home on his nape as his eyes avert Jaemin’s. “Yeah… I remember,” he says. It’s not something he was proud of doing to be honest. And throwing up on the yard right when he was about to go back to his apartment didn’t make him feel better about it. It was wild, uncontrollable—a mayhem, something he wouldn’t want to do again even if someone gave him a thousand dollars.

Parties have a very negative notion on Lee Jeno.

Jeno just happened to be on that party because Haechan was a persistent bitch just like the last party he attended.

He steals a glance at Jaemin, trying to gauge his friend’s reaction. “It was… wild,” he supplies unhelpfully and winces. That doesn’t really make it any better and Renjun would’ve had a field day if he was here witnessing this exchange.

One corner of Jaemin’s lips lifted into a half-hearted smile. He’s not looking at Jeno, eyes fixed on something behind Jeno as he shuffles on his feet, clearly distracted. He flickers his eyes towards the other momentarily before looking away once more. “It was wild, yeah…”

Jeno runs a scan on his hazy memories of that night. Did he do something stupid? Was he a jerk towards Jaemin at the party? Jeno doesn’t remember seeing Jaemin in the party but possibilities upon possibilities could happen. Was he making out with someone again? Or way worse was he making out with Ja—

Jeno shakes his head, not indulging further into that thought. “Thot begone,” Haechan would say and hearing Haechan’s voice internally in his mind calms him. A bit. Somewhat. But then he remembers why he was in such a party in the first place and condemns himself for thinking of associating Haechan with the word calming.

“Do you remember… drinking something from a vial of sort?”

Jeno scrunches his eyebrows together, tilting his head to the side and tries to recall a memory of ever even seeing Jaemin or drinking something that was his.

He draws a blank.

He slowly shakes his head. “S-Sorry but I-I don’t remember anything…”

Jaemin’s shoulders deflate but then slowly his face brightens like Christmas lights. “You truly don’t remember a thing?”

Jeno frowns, he can feel headaches forming since he’s forcing his brain to remember a memory so hazy. “I can’t…” he rubs the side of neck, smiling sheepishly at Jaemin. “I’m sorry, I don’t really remember anything… I don’t even remember seeing you in the first place! Was it a really important drink? Don’t tell me,” he gasps in sudden horror. “That’s one of your bacteria fluids for one of your med course!?”

Jaemin throws his head back and laughs, so loud, so free, Jeno lost himself in the image of his friend just for a second.

“I’d love to see your reaction to that to be honest,” Jaemin bursts into another fit of laughter when Jeno shoves him by the shoulder. “I wanna see if you’re gonna turn green and vomit your insides out or if you’re gonna turn blue just to freeze and get offlined like error computer or—”

“Stop it Na Jaemin!” Jeno scolds but he couldn’t stop the laughter flowing out of his lips, laughing along with the other. “I don’t want disturbing images flashing right before my eyes when I’m looking at myself in the mirror!”

It suddenly feels like being high school teenagers again who hangs out frequently with each other, copying on each other’s home works (mostly Jaemin copying Jeno’s), talking to each other in class using weird hand gestures and facial expressions, running towards their favorite steak place whenever they feel like rewarding themselves or just throwing rocks on river Han to see who can throw the farthest (Jeno wins mostly) or to see who’s the best at skipping stones (the two of them sucks at this game).

Jaemin grins, the kind of lopsided mischievous one he does when he’s up to something. “Speaking of mirrors… Jeno, aren’t you going to be very extra late for practice?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment guys cause I wanna know where should I improve and all of that, please comment. They're my golds :') Thank you for the two people who commented in the first chapter, I love you guys! 
> 
> Ranting:  
> 1\. Xiao Yang means little lamb in chinese, its a nickname YangYang wants to be called and Ten uses this because uwu.  
> 2\. Geminis get a lot of tease for being bitchy and all, its fun and funny sometimes but I feel ticked off when the teasing gets too far. As a Gemini myself I feel amahzangs, thank you.  
> 3\. I was confused at first who should I room YangYang with but then Dream Launch happened.  
> 4\. You realize you're an old kpop fan when you can only think of old kpop groups and where they'll fit in your fanfics but then you remember their actual age and go wtf he's too old to be in college or he should be graduating by now. But really I had a bit of a headache thinking about this whole thingy because come on, Kai is not going to be a dance student at his age cause he'll be a gone and go for his master's degree or that he'll be off in his career or something by now in my fanfic's timeline. And if I roughly count the oldest guys in the uni are the 96 guys. My brain goes for a spin.  
> 5\. Are you guys counting how many groups I'm throwing in in this fanfic? Please do if you can hehe, I wanna know.


	4. Author's Note

Hi guys! Sorry this isn't a new chapter because I need my readers input for the continuation of this story.

So I want to put this story into a oneshot because I don't know how to make this story longer... I want to continue this story but with a new plot is that okay guys? Or do you guys think I should just use this plot and continue it as how it is but then change it into a oneshot? What do you guys think?

I'm really grateful if you guys have any input for me :') 

Thank you and have a nice day!

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. I am a sucker for the 00 liner so I really want them to like just meet up and become friends like the rest of the generations which is why in this fic I am putting a lot of 00 liner on the spotlight.  
>  2\. I may put a lot of 00 liner on the spotlight but that doesn't mean that I really know their character (I'm not in other fandoms aside from NCT) so please correct me if I'm wrong on their behaviors or attitudes and such. I merely write them from what I've observed through videos and facts lists on the internet. Same goes for NCT characters too tbh.  
>  3\. National Culture Technology University... HAHA anyways that was created on a whim and I know it sounds bad but uhm I was running out of ideas so- lol  
>  4\. If you guys haven't noticed, I did a reference to Andre's catching-inspiration behavior from Victorious. I love that show so much :')  
>  5\. For those of you who read this congrats! You put up with my ranting/explanation, thank you!
> 
> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Don't forget to leave a comment as you click on the back/close button!


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